\n<\/p>\n
In France, a robust appetite is a virtue if not a heroic trait.<\/p>\n
Eating gratifies all the senses: We take in the aroma of a handsome dish, delight at the sound of a sizzling steak or crave the crunch of a crusty baguette. So to fully appreciate the various sensory dimensions of a fine French meal is, essentially, to express a sophisticated artistic judgment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taste of Things,\u201d by the director Tran Anh Hung, is a 19th-century French romance powered by this understanding of food\u2019s transcendence. The feature opened in theaters Wednesday in France and will play on screens at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art on Nov. 10 before its Oscar-qualifying run in mid-December.<\/p>\n
The movie is about a distinguished gourmand, Dodin (Beno\u00eet Magimel), and his preternaturally gifted chef, Eug\u00e9nie (Juliette Binoche). They live together in the French countryside and together concoct lavish meals for themselves and Dodin\u2019s coterie of foodie friends. Their lives entirely revolve around the cultivation and creation of these dishes, which Hung emphasizes through long, elaborate cooking scenes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
When I first watched \u201cThe Taste of Things\u201d at this year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival, I was surrounded by a delightfully vocal audience. The oohing and ahhing was ubiquitous and, apparently, a visceral response, similar to what is elicited by beholding Monet\u2019s water lilies or being wrapped in the velvety textures of Whitney Houston\u2019s voice. Savoring a tasty meal (or even just watching one come together on a big screen) brings a kind of joy that can\u2019t be explained by logic or reason.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Reviews of the film in France have been mixed. Le Monde\u2019s Clarisse Fabre<\/a> found its blissful atmosphere and near-absence of dramatic tension perplexing and boring. Olivier Lamm<\/a> of Lib\u00e9ration wrote that there\u2019s much more to the film than its food-porn attractions \u2014 it\u2019s also about the assault of junk food and globalization on French standards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The country\u2019s rich gastronomic tradition \u2014 and its long history of federally regulating the quality and authenticity of its wines and produce \u2014 is a particular point of national pride, and French film industry leaders have embraced the gourmand label. This year, \u201cThe Taste of Things\u201d was selected as the French submission for the Oscar\u2019s best international film category over Justine Triet<\/a>\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or winner, \u201cAnatomy of a Fall.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n The decision was met with objections from French critics, who said Triet was punished for the political charge of her acceptance speech at Cannes. However, the selection of Hung\u2019s film isn\u2019t all that surprising given the selection committee\u2019s evident partiality to films commenting on the country\u2019s national identity \u2014 or, from a more cynical standpoint, films that offer Oscar voters a tourist-friendly idea of France.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The French devotion to the culinary arts is a bit of an onscreen clich\u00e9, and Hollywood films like \u201cRatatouille<\/a>\u201d and \u201cChocolat<\/a>\u201d (the latter, also starring Binoche, made big money in the United States, but fared far less well in France) have relied on stereotypically French settings, like a rustic village and a Parisian bistro, to communicate lessons about food\u2019s revolutionary and unifying powers.<\/p>\n More rewarding \u2014 and complex \u2014 is the 1956 French classic \u201cLa Travers\u00e9e de Paris,\u201d starring the Frenchest of all Frenchmen, Jean Gabin, as an artist-turned-black market courier in Nazi-occupied Paris. This black dramedy stars Gabin and the comedian Bourvil<\/a>, who play a bickering duo who must transport four suitcases of contraband pork across the city while evading the authorities and a horde of hungry hounds.<\/p>\n